


Freeze and Explode

by SaskiaKieranLuthor



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Established Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor, F/F, Heavy Angst, Violence, angst angst angst, it's dark but also lena is a badass, kara dies and lena is barely holding it together, oh god why did I write this i cannot handle angst, this gets dark guys, this is the story of how she gets her power back, which we been knew
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2020-11-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:08:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27587249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaskiaKieranLuthor/pseuds/SaskiaKieranLuthor
Summary: Lex kills Supergirl and disappears. Lena is distraught and not holding it together very well, so she runs away to a small Canadian town where no one will know who she is. But trouble always follows a Luthor, and Lena is no exception.This is the story of how Lena reclaims her power and begins to heal.
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 11
Kudos: 83





	Freeze and Explode

**Author's Note:**

> I cannot handle angst and I never write it, so I have no idea where this came from, but I hope it ain't shit. 
> 
> No beta, any mistakes are the fault of my pet rock, Gerald.

Lena panted as she pushed her body to keep moving. The crisp October air cut into her lungs as she jogged along the path she had formed through the woods over the past three months. Her ankle was screaming at her and the stitch in her side was reminiscent of a knife in her stomach. She slowed to a walk, filling her lungs with autumn air and pushing down the frustrating anger that threatened to bubble out.

She inhaled deeply.  _ Remember why you’re doing this. _ But she didn’t really need reminding. It was all she thought about, all day everyday. It was the only reason she did anything anymore. The only reason she was able to get out of bed in the morning. The only reason she wasn’t currently holed up in her penthouse in National City, drowning herself in a bottle of 50-year-old scotch. 

It was a simple reason. She’d made a promise.

***

_ “Lena, you can’t just survive on carrot sticks and scotch,” Kara giggled into her neck, pressing a kiss to her cheek and a bag of Big Belly Burger into her hands. “Come sit and eat  _ **_real food_ ** _ with me!” _

_ She smiled and rose from her desk, taking the bag of greasy fast food and following her to the couch. “You consider this to be real food?” _

_ “The realest,” replied Kara with a grin. “Better than whatever rabbit food you’re nibbling on, and certainly better than scotch.” She fixed the CEO with an admonishing stare, adjusting her glasses pointedly. _

_ “You know we don’t all have metabolisms of steel, right?” She teased, helping herself to the smothered fries her fiancée had picked up for her.  _

_ “It doesn’t matter what kind of metabolism you have if you never eat.” Kara’s lips pulled down into a frown. “I’m serious, Lena. I want you to take better care of yourself. I’m planning on being with you for a heck of a long time, but I can only do that if you’re  _ **_here_ ** _.” _

_ Lena set her fries down and looked up into her superhero fiancée’s stony gaze. “I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “I’ll do better. For you.” She caught the defiant look in the blonde’s eye and tacked on “--and for me,” at the end.  _

_ Kara slid across the couch, closing the minimal distance between them and pulled her into a soft, sweet kiss. “You promise?” _

_ Lena gazed up into her kind face, willing to promise anything, give her anything,  _ **_do_ ** _ anything, as long as Kara kept looking at her like that. _

_ “I promise.” _

***

She shook her head to clear the memories out before the crying started again. It had begun to feel like that was all she ever did anymore was cry. Inhaling the cool fall air, she rolled her ankle, feeling it pop, and nearly groaned at the sensation. Then she picked up her pace and jogged back to the cabin.

A loud barking greeted her as she pushed the door open, pulling off her coat and grabbing a glass of water. A large German shepherd bounded up to her, sniffing at her hands, its tail battering her legs. 

“Hi Krypto. Hi, I know, I know, I missed you too,” she said softly, grabbing his dish and filling it with kibble. She put a pot of soup on to heat up and peeled off her shoes and socks, massaging her ankle over the ace bandage still wrapped around it. She moved through the rest of her physical therapy exercises after that. Her shoulder still felt a little like there were shards of glass under her skin and in her joints, but it was healing. 

She’d gone from not being able to lift her arm at all, to being able to chop firewood with moderate discomfort, in just over three months. The doctor had told her she was lucky to even regain function in her arm after what happened, and so she kept her promise to Kara to take better care of herself and did her exercises every day, no matter how badly it hurt. No matter how much she wanted to just cut her arm off just so she could feel some kind of pain other than grief. She stopped those thoughts in their tracks and grabbed some ibuprofen for the pain. Pain was good. Pain meant her body was still working. Pain meant she was still alive. 

Soon, a fire was roaring in the stone fireplace, filling the cabin with warmth and light, the logs crackling as she helped herself to the soup she had heated up. Lena stared into the flames for a moment, before closing her eyes and letting herself imagine that the warmth was actually from a certain Kryptonian angel wrapping herself around her cold body. Tears began to prick at the corners of her eyes and she pushed the fantasy away. There was no room for that anymore. 

She finished her soup and washed her bowl, flicking the garbage disposal on. The cabin went dark. She rolled her head back and sighed, grabbing her boots and coat, heading out to the generator. She kept forgetting she was on a limited power supply. 

Grabbing her tool box from the back of her truck, she made her way over to the old generator and tinkered with it, allowing her mind to be encompassed by the fuses, wires, and belts. She never really minded when the generator went down--which it did, frequently--because this was her element. Figuring out what made machines tick, and then fixing them. She reattached the leads and closed the cover, toggling the switch to the on position. The machine roared to life and the light overhead blinked on. She smiled, dusting her hands off and turning to head back inside.

The machine began to sputter and smoke, before dying outright. The smile slid off her face and she rolled her eyes, sighing as she dumped her tools back into the box and headed down to the hardware store.

Rolling down the mountain on the single lane road that led into what the locals described as “downtown” (which was really just a general store, the post office, a hardware store, and a gas station), she passed the ranger’s station and a sign reading “Welcome to Atlin--Population 150”. _1_ _ 51, _ she thought to herself. She had grown to like this small Canadian town. It offered her an anonymity that she couldn’t find back home. That was the point of this remote excursion. To be removed, so far away from civilisation that the Luthor name wasn’t even a footnote in their newsfeeds, if they even  _ had _ newsfeeds. 

As she pulled into the hardware store parking lot, she wondered if anyone here had even known of the existence of Supergirl, if they knew what had been lost. Tears pricked her eyes again and she dug her palms into them, breathing deeply. Setting her jaw, she slammed her truck door shut and headed inside.

The bell above the door rang a few times as she perused the aisles, looking for the part she needed. The hardware store stayed busy here. 

“Hey Dave? Do you still have the L1420 fuel injector solenoid? I saw one here last week. I need it…”

The old indigenous man at the counter peered over his glasses and squinted past her. “On your left. By the timing belt.”

She followed his instructions and found it. 

“Genny out again?” He asked, writing down her items on the purchase order. No fancy checkout scanners up here in Atlin, everything was done long hand and in cash. That was the way Lena liked it.

“Oh Dave, if anything worked up at that place, I’d get bored.”

He chuckled. “Storm’s coming. Did you see the weather?”

“Yeah, they say ice.”

“Early for ice. Leaves are still on the trees, but that’s what they say. Few inches, at least.” He stared at her quizzically over his glasses. “You get that VHF radio working yet?”

She gave him a tired smile. “It’s on my to-do list.” She grabbed her bag of goods and headed for the door. “Stay warm.”

“Stay warm, Tess.”

***

Lena finished changing the belt and the solenoid and closed the cover on the generator, hitting the on switch and sent a silent prayer to Rao. That was a new thing she’d been doing--praying to Rao. She’d never been much for religion, but Kara had believed, and now…well, it made her feel closer to her. Maybe if Rao could hear her, then Kara could too.

The generator sputtered to life and continued running strong. Lena smiled a tired, triumphant sort of smile. Krypto barked at the noise. She went back inside and made herself a cup of tea, sitting down at the table, slumping down in her chair, her legs pulled up to her chin as she stared blankly into space. She did that a lot these days, staring blankly into space. Sometimes her thoughts wandered to Kara. Sometimes they didn’t. Sometimes she thought about Lex. Usually when that happened, she broke whatever she was holding and disappeared under the covers for the rest of the day. She tried not to think about him. Not yet. His time would come. He would pay for what he’d done, what he’d taken from her.

***

_ She pushed herself up the small hill in the cemetery, her cane digging into the wet grass. She hated the cane. She hated how hard it was to walk. She hated how hard it was to  _ **_breathe_ ** _ without her. She stopped in front of the large white marble headstone, laying a single plumeria down on top.  _

_ “Hey, you,” she said quietly, trying to keep the waver out of her voice. Her lips quirked and trembled, her jaw working as she tried to find the words she wanted to say.  _

_ She stared at the letters carved into the marble, saw them spell out her love's name, and began to crumble. Dropping to her knees, a sob rippled out of her throat, tears coating her sickly pale face, illuminating the purple circles under her eyes. She shook her head and let her raven hair fall into her face. _

_ “I’m not doing very well,” she whimpered, all pretense of trying to remain strong leaving her. She rolled her eyes and sighed. “I told myself I wasn’t gonna tell you that--that’s the last thing you need to hear.” She sniffled and inhaled, trying to catch her breath. “But we said we’d always be honest with each other.” She rubbed her eyes, willing the tears to stop falling. They wouldn’t. Her shoulders heaved and her breaths were wet and heavy. “I miss you, darling. I love you and I miss you, and I don’t know what to do without you here.” _

_ She leaned back against the cold, unforgiving marble and stared out over the field of stone laid in front of her. “I’m thinking about going away.” _

***

Her musings were interrupted by a knock on the door, followed by Krypto’s loud bark. Pulling the door open slowly, the friendly face of the local ranger, Jack, was revealed. He gave her a big smile. “Hey there, Tess! I got a package for ya. Orphaned. Pam said it had been there for over a week, so I offered to bring it on up here for ya! I figured you just forgot about it.”

She smiled politely, taking the package from his hands. “That’s very thoughtful of you. You didn’t have to drive all the way out here in this weather.”

He huddled himself closer to the door and shivered. “Believe me, I know that. Colder than a Canadian outhouse right now.” He chuckled and waited, seemingly for her to invite him in to get warm.

“Oh, I’m sorry Jack, come on in.” She pulled the door open wider to let him in. “Are you headed to the station?”

“Yep, boss wants someone on site--hey Krypto!--because we’re supposed to get some ice tonight. I wasn’t here for the storm back in ‘03, but they were without power in town for nine days.”

Lena set the package down on the stacks of others sitting in the corner. She gave him a tightlipped polite smile. “Well, I’ll send you on your way with some coffee.” She grabbed a thermos out of the cabinet and moved toward the coffee pot.

“If you ever wanted to come along my route sometime, I’d be happy to give you a tour!”

She avoided his hopeful eyes and began filling the thermos. She knew he had a little crush on her, but she didn’t quite know how to shoot him down.  _ Sorry Jack, my brother killed my fiancée six months ago and disappeared without a trace, and I’m just not ready for a new relationship yet,  _ wasn’t exactly a great opening line or a good way to shoot someone down. She settled for more vague politeness.

“That sounds nice. Maybe when the weather passes.”

His shoulders slumped slightly, but he gave her a bright smile. “Yeah, yeah, sure! That’s what I meant.” He gestured to the packages piled in the corner of the cabin. “When are you gonna unpack?”

“Oh, I’m sure I’ll get around to it sooner or later.” She screwed the top back onto the thermos and handed it to him.

“Happy to help if you want!”

She gave him the same tired smile she’d given Dave. The only smile she could seem to muster right now. “I’ll let you know.”

He just smiled back. She wanted him to leave now. “Be careful out there,” she said, gesturing toward the door.

He got the hint, thanking her for the coffee and patting Krypto goodbye. Lena closed the door behind him and watched him as he left. She knew he was just trying to be nice, trying to connect with her, but she couldn’t find it in herself to give any more than polite niceties. It wasn’t his fault. He didn’t know--how could he?--no one knew. She hadn’t even told anyone her real name. It was all by her own design to be up here, secluded, while she mourned, while she cried, while she plotted her ultimate revenge. 

***

_ “I don’t think I can do this,” she whispered into Kara’s neck, staring at Lex’s taunting face frozen on the screen, her hands gripping the heavy material of her cape. “I don’t think I have it in me to kill him again. Once was more than enough.” _

_ “Hey,” Kara said, pulling her face away from her neck, gripping her cheeks with her large palms. “You don’t have to kill him, Lena. No one’s asking you to do that. You can sit this whole thing out. We’d all understand.” _

_ She sniffled and turned her cheek deeper into her super fiancee’s strong hand. “He’s threatening you. There’s no way I’m sitting this one out. I just don’t know if I can face him. I don’t know if I’m strong enough.” _

_ Kara pulled her close and gripped her as tightly as she could without hurting her. “You’re the strongest woman I know, baby. You can handle anything, you know why?” _

_ Lena pulled back and stared into her soft blue eyes, shaking her head. _

_ “Because you’re Lena fucking Luthor! That’s why!” _

_ Lena let a wet giggle escape from her throat at the swear word.  _

_ “That’s right! I said it! And I’ll say it again! Lena fu--” _

_ “Just shut up and kiss me, you big dummy,” she said, pressing her lips hard onto Kara’s.  _

_ Kara pulled away after a minute and pressed her forehead against hers. “What I mean is, you got this.  _ **_We_ ** _ got this. It’s all going to be okay.” _

***

_ It was not okay. Somehow Lex had gotten ahold of the Harun-El again, and between his new superpowers, his Lexosuit, and a seemingly endless supply of kryptonite, it was all they could do to keep up with him.  _

_ As he ripped out the CPU of her own Lexosuit, she grabbed onto his, desperately trying to avoid falling from this height. The extra weight dragged him lower as he tried to throw her off.  _

_ Yanking away the metal of the Lexosuit on her arm, he grabbed her bicep and pulled, dislocating her shoulder. She yelled in pain as his grip tightened. “Remember Lena, I gave you the chance to join me. Just remember that.” Then he threw her straight down into a brick wall. She felt her body make contact with the stone, the metal of the suit absorbing most of the blow. What she didn’t account for was the cracks appearing in the facade, the chunks of stone falling onto her dazed body. She tried to move, her shoulder smarting painfully, but she was too slow. A slab the size of a door fell onto her body, crushing her exposed shoulder and pinning her to the ground.  _

_ All she could do was watch as Kara continued the battle in the air, unaware of her future wife’s predicament. Lex was keeping step with her blow for blow, showing no signs of faltering. Suddenly, Kara clocked him right in the head, nearly knocking him out of the sky. As she swung around to finish the job, his wrist gauntlet extended, a kryptonite blade fixed to the end. It happened too quickly. A second later Lena watched as Kara slid off the end of it, falling to earth, cratering into the pavement below, never to rise again. _

_ Lex disappeared after that. Not Lena, not the DEO, nor any number of shady contacts could find him. In one fell swoop, Lena had lost her love, her brother, and herself. _

***

The sun began to set, casting shadows over the wooden surfaces of the cabin and she was once again pulled out of her thoughts by Krypto’s barking.  _ Probably Jack again, _ she thought to herself, pulling back the curtain to check. There was no one there. Krypto continued to bark, pawing at the door. 

Grabbing her pistol from the gun safe, she opened the door and let Krypto run off to find the source of the disturbance while she pulled on her coat and hat. A fog had begun to roll in and the temperature had already dropped at least ten degrees. She traipsed through the stiff grass and pine needles, the fallen leaves crunching under her boots. “Krypto?” She called slowly, heartbeat racing. 

His loud barks led her to the edge of the treeline, where a man lay on his back, unconscious or worse. She raised her gun and looked around the forest. There was no one there. Lowering herself down to the ground, she reached out two fingers and pressed them to his neck, looking for a pulse. 

She nearly fired her gun into the ground when a cold hand reached up and grabbed hers. Staring down at him wide-eyed, she saw as he opened his mouth to speak, but only puffs of air escaped. He drew in a ragged breath and on the exhale, a timid ‘help’ made its way to her ears. His hand fell to the ground weakly and she looked around for a method of transport. Her gaze landed on the sled hanging on the exterior wall of the cabin. Running inside, she stoked the fire and grabbed a blanket before grabbing the sled and dragging it along behind her. 

She lined it up next to him and pulled him onto it, wrapping the blanket tightly around him. He’d be lucky if he didn’t have hypothermia by the looks of his extremities. She heaved the sled forward, pulling with all her might, back to the safety and warmth of the cabin. 

Once inside, she heaved him up onto the couch, noticing a trickle of blood coming from under his jacket, she unzipped it and found a four inch gash in his stomach.

“Oh Rao,” she muttered, jumping up to grab a bottle of vodka from the freezer, as well as her first aid kit, some clover honey, fishing line, and a hook. She took a shot of the vodka, hoping Kara wouldn’t mind, and poured some on her hands to disinfect them, before doing the same with his stomach. The man was so out of it he didn’t even register the action.

She threaded the hook and disinfected it, pulling it through his skin, sewing up the bloody gash in his abdomen. Taking some gauze pads from the first aid kit, she slathered them with the clover honey, sticking them to the wound, before taping it all down and re-covering him with the blanket.

She sat there for a while watching him sleep, keeping an eye on his ragged shallow breathing. He needed a hospital, but there was no way in hell she could drag him the 20 miles to the nearest hospital, and the roads would soon be an ice rink, if they weren’t already.

As she sat pondering his condition, she wondered if there was anyone missing him. Anyone looking for him. Someone out there who was worried for his safety or mourning the loss of his presence. Surely there must be. She fiddled with the diamond ring on her finger absentmindedly (another new habit of hers), thinking of all the people that had mourned Kara with her. 

Alex, who was utterly broken and only clinging to existence because of Kelly. Kelly, who was trying to be strong for the both of them. Eliza, who confided in her that she always feared this day would come, before wrapping her in a hug and sobbing with her as they bonded over their shared pain. Nia, who had lost her mentor. Brainy, who had lost his personal hero. They all mourned the loss of their friend, their sister, their daughter, their hero. 

Lena mourned all of that, but also the loss of the very essence of who she was. Lex had once told her that she would always fall into the light, but it wasn’t until she had fallen in love with Kara that she realised that  _ she  _ was the light. And Lena would always fall into her, reaching for her like a plant just trying to catch the barest glimpse of the sun. Now it felt like that light was extinguished, and all that was left in its place was cold anger and darkness.

She wondered if this was all there was anymore.

***

_ “I need you to promise me something, Sam.”  _

_ They were knelt down in her living room in the apartment she and Kara had moved into together. She wrapped a picture tenderly in bubble wrap before placing it in a box.  _

_ “Of course,” Sam replied softly. _

_ “L-Corp. I need you to promise me you’ll keep things running smoothly in my absence. I can’t risk any of those board members taking a vote of no-confidence and ousting me. I need to keep their influence away from my legacy.” _

_ Sam curled her knees up to her chest. “It won’t be the same without you--without your vision.” _

_ “Sam…” _

_ She held up her hands in surrender. “I promise.” _

_ “Thank you. I have one more favour to ask you. And it’s not going to be easy for you. Or Alex. Or any of you. But it’s important to me.” _

_ Sam cocked her head and arched an eyebrow suspiciously. “Okay…” _

_ She fixed Sam with a firm look. “I don’t want you to follow me. You’re gonna let go of me. This is my decision, and I need you guys to respect that. Can you do that?” _

_Sam took a deep breath in and nodded. “Alright, I will. But I want you to promise_ ** _me_** _something in return.”_

_ Lena stared at her tiredly, the dark circles under her eyes never more prominent. _

_ “Promise me you’ll grieve.” _

_ She stared at Sam blankly for a moment as a wave of anger crashed over her. She narrowed her eyes and her lip curled up in a snarl. “ _ **_Of course_ ** _ I’ll grieve. What the fuck is it you think I’m doing?” _

_ Sam gave her a grave look, but didn’t break eye contact, even as she felt the brunt of Lena’s anger hit her.  _

_ “I think you’re running away from your problems when you should be fixing them.” She let the words wash over her friend before continuing. “I’m sure it feels like you’re staring into an abyss, but until you mourn, you won’t be able to cross it.” _

_ Lena scoffed. “What’s so great about crossing it?” She asked, a lump forming in her throat that threatened to choke her. “What’s on the other side? Peace? Tranquility?” _

_ Sam tilted her head and smiled softly. “Some.” _

_ Lena glared at her, her eyes filling with tears. “That won’t bring her back, Sam. I prefer revenge.” Her voice shook with rage. _

_ “That’s what I’m afraid of.” _

_ “Really?” Lena said, her voice rising with exasperation and shaking with rage. “Because imagining what I’m going to do to the monster that killed the only person that ever really--that I ever--” She trailed off, forcing down the sobs that threatened to break free from her chest. “Picturing the pain and agony I’m going to inflict on him? That’s the only thing that gets me out of bed in the morning.” _

_ Sam nodded, tears falling down her cheeks. She wiped them hastily and blew out a deep breath. “Just…don’t just go off and hide in the dark, okay? Wherever you go, look for some light. Kara would want that.” _

***

Lena wiped her eyes and inhaled deeply. Pulling the man off the couch and down onto the sled, she dragged him to her bedroom, heaving him onto the bed. Leaning against the wall panting, she briefly marveled at how much stronger she had become over the past few months. She’d always been so weak, relying on her brains over any brawn, especially when she had always had Earth’s mightiest hero at her back, but now she was gaining new muscle every day. 

She pushed herself off the wall and tucked in the blankets around the unconscious man, stoking the fire in the hearth before she bundled up and trudged down to the ranger’s station, Krypto at her side. 

There was no one inside, just an emergency radio repeating the same severe weather alert over and over again. Pulling a piece of paper out of the printer, she quickly jotted down a note for Jack and taped it to his computer screen.

_ There’s been an emergency. Come when you can. -- Tess _

The weather had picked up outside, the wind blowing ice pellets into her face; the temperature had fallen well below freezing. Snow fell in piles from trees as the gusty winds blew through them. As the pair approached the cabin, Krypto began to bark loudly, rushing for the door. Lena removed her pistol from her waistband--she’d taken to carrying it since the mystery man had shown up--and made her way slowly through the door. The first thing that caught her eye were three ice covered duffles and three pairs of snow boots sitting by the door, the melted ice creating a puddle in the entryway.

The hairs on the back of her neck stood up as she moved through the cabin toward the bedroom, gun raised and ready. She spotted two men standing on either side of the bed and pointed her gun between them with purpose.

“What the hell is going on here?”

A man appeared from her left, where he had been standing at the end of the bed. Seeing her gun, he flinched and raised his hands. “Whoa! Take it easy, lady!”

“Who the hell are you people?”

The two men at the bedside said nothing, but the man who had spoken to her was quick to try to reassure her. 

“Sorry if we scared you. I’m Ben. Our plane went down and we were trying to get to shelter. I just--I don’t know if we would’ve lasted much longer out there in that wind.”

Lena regarded him suspiciously, motioning for them all to leave the bedroom. She didn’t want them disturbing her injured guest. She narrowed her eyes as she leaned against the kitchen counter. “You said your plane went down?”

“Not my plane--a charter.” He motioned to one of the silent men, a slim scruffy looking man with sandy blonde hair. “Corben read about one of these fishing trips out of Juneau. It seemed like a good idea at the time,” he laughed. “It always does, right? You know? Seaplanes, camp fires, big sky…”

The man he had spoken about, Corben, grabbed a jar of peanut butter and a spoon out of her cabinet, raising his eyebrows to ask permission. She arched an eyebrow but nodded curtly. 

The third man spoke up now. “We hit weather. Ice. I could see it freezing up on the wing. A couple inches, at least.”

Ben filled a glass with ice from her freezer and began crunching on it. “Yeah, before we knew it, it just started breaking off.”

“Sounded like a damn hammer hitting that plane,  _ bam! bam! bam! _ ” Corben banged his spoon on the counter in time with his words and Lena flinched at the sound.

“Yeah, it must have busted something, because before I knew it we started dropping and the pilot is saying we lost an engine,” said Ben, crunching on his ice.

Lena crossed her arms over her chest. “Your plane went down...where?”

The third man spoke up. “A mile back? Maybe two?”

She raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t hear anything.”

“No, no it was further than that,” said Ben, “it must have been 6…10 miles. I don’t know. With the weather, we got all turned around.”

“And you were all able to just walk away?”

“Well, we got lucky. But the pilot…”

“Is he the guy in the other room?”

Ben winced. “No, the pilot um…the pilot didn’t make it. We had to leave him. Adam--the guy in your bedroom--he was cut up pretty bad on the way down. He knew he was bleeding, but he didn’t want to wait for help. The dumb son of a bitch started walking.”

“We couldn’t talk sense into him,” Corben added, mouth full of peanut butter.

“Temperature started dropping. We thought we were gonna die out there. So we just started walking,” Ben continued. “We never found Adam, but we saw the smoke from your chimney, no lights, no locks...we thought the place was empty.”

Lena nodded. The story seemed implausible, yet with everything she had been through in her life, she was unsure if she should dismiss it outright. She opted not to say anything. Surely if they kept speaking, they would make a mistake.

“So, how is Adam?” Ben asked, tossing more ice into his glass.

“He was out when I found him,” she replied. “Actually, he found me.”

“Is he gonna be okay?”

“Not if we don’t get him to a hospital. I closed up his wounds, but he’s bleeding internally. You can tell by his breathing. There’s blood in his airways. He’s got a few hours,  _ maybe. _ ”

Ben was silent for a moment, lost in thought. “What about the roads?”

She scoffed. “Good luck out there. It’s an ice rink. Block’s frozen on my truck. Even if I had a phone, the lines are down. Bottom line is, we’ve gotta get your friend out of here fast, and I have no idea how.”

He pulled a walkie talkie out of his jacket pocket. “We had these, to stay in touch on the trip. Maybe we could radio someone for help?”

Lena took the radio from his hand and shook her head. “These are short range. Good if we want to talk to each other, but useless if we want to call for help.”

He sighed. “Oh, hey, I never asked your name.”

“Tess. It’s Tess,” her eyes trailed down his arm and caught sight of a gash in his arm. “You’re bleeding.”

She motioned for him to follow her back out to the living room where she still had the materials from stitching up Adam. Sitting him down, she began disinfecting his arm and her hands again.

“So, what’s your story?” He asked as she threaded the needle. “Up here, all alone…?”

“You know the story,” she replied softly, “A girl in a cabin with a gun and a dog.”

He chuckled, chewing loudly on the ice. “I don’t think I’ve heard that one.”

She smiled. “I’ll tell it to you sometime when you don’t have a needle sticking out of your arm.” She pulled the needle through his skin and he tensed, groaning quietly. “Trust me, it’s not that interesting.”

He scoffed. “Well I doubt that. I don’t know many peop--” he inhaled sharply as the needle hooked through his skin again, “--people who could diagnose internal bleeding by the sound of someone’s breathing. You a doctor or something?”

She motioned for him to turn away so she could better reach the end of the wound, ignoring his question.

“Come on...there has to be a halfway decent story. No Mr. Mysterious out there? On his way home right now…?”

She flicked her eyes up to the side of his face, judging his intent. Was he trying to see if she was really alone? To see how much of a threat she was? Or was he just genuinely asking if she had anyone? Unbidden, thoughts of Kara flooded her mind and she felt her eyes burn as they filled with tears.

“There was once. It didn’t work out.” She slathered the honey on the wound as she finished dressing it, pressing gauze pads into the sticky sap and taping them down. She vaguely heard him say something, but her thoughts were still with Kara.

_ “Tess _ .” She jerked out of her stupor. “Huh?”

“I said, ‘what’s the prognosis?’”

She smiled softly. “I think you might live.” She stood up, pulling on her coat and gloves. “I’m gonna go check the radio.”

Ben shifted anxiously. “There’s a radio?”

“An old one in the barn. Used for calling in weather reports. Hasn’t worked in years, but if I could get it running…”

“Well, uh, you want a hand? I’ll help.”

She smirked at him. “I’m a big girl.” And with that she headed out to the barn, grabbing her tool box out of the truck along the way, Krypto bounding along beside her. Heading into the barn, she made her way over to the old radio, flipping the on switch and hitting the talk button. “If anyone can hear me, acknowledge this transmission. Copy?”

Nothing but static.

She sighed and began pulling apart the internals. It was at least thirty years old, and in desperate need of new tubes.  _ You should have prioritised this, dummy.  _ Rewiring what she could and fixing any obvious glitches, she put the machine back together and flipped the switch. “Broadcasting in the blind, does anybody copy?”

A voice came over the radio...it was in Russian. She threw the microphone down in frustration. Krypto put his head on her thigh and gazed up at her with his soft brown eyes. “Hey, buddy.” She patted his head and scratched behind his ears absentmindedly. “What do you think of these guys, huh?” Krypto licked her jacket where snow had fallen in patches. “Yeah, I’m not buying it either.”

She headed back inside to find Ben filling his glass with more ice and Jack standing in the middle of the room. 

“Oh there you are,” he said as she closed the door. “I got your note, came as soon as I could.”

“The calvary showed up,” the third man quipped.

“What’s going on here,” Jack asked, brow furrowed.

“Like they said, there’s been an accident,” Lena replied, arching an eyebrow.

“Yeah I know, they said.” He squinted over at Ben. “Where were you guys flying out of?”

“Juneau. Fishing charter.”

“Yeah, we are lucky to be alive,” Corben added. 

“Our friend Adam...he’s not so lucky. We’ve got to get him to a doctor.”

Jack shook his head. “The roads are impossible, and it’s only getting worse. The radio is down at the station. I had to walk here.”

Lena perked up. “There’d be a radio on the plane!”

Ben interjected, “No, we tried that. It didn’t work.”

“Well, if we could  _ get it _ to work, at least get the locator working on the black box, at least then Search and Rescue could get a snowcat down here and medivac your friend out.”

The third man rose from his spot on the couch. “I can help. I’ve got a pretty decent sense of direction. I could get us back to that wreckage, I know it.”

Jack headed to Lena’s closet to grab another flashlight. “What about you? You gonna be okay here?”

She scoffed. “No, I’m not okay. There’s a stranger bleeding out in my bed and you could use me out there.”

Ben spoke up. “Yeah but if you go, then who looks after Adam? ‘Cause I can’t do it.” His face fell and his tone grew serious. “Please. Please don’t make me tell his wife he died on my watch.”

She nodded, before pulling Jack aside, lowering her voice. “I got a question for you. These guys, their story, anything seem off to you?”

He gave her a puzzled look. “What do you mean ‘off’?”

She gave him an incredulous look. “They walked  _ ten miles _ in this weather? From a crash I never heard?”

Jack chuckled, patting her arm. “Don’t be silly.”

Lena stared at him. “Jack, there’s not a broken bone on one of them. I think I should go with you.”

He shook his head and gave her a smile. “You’re being paranoid. Come on, everything’s going to be fine. We’ll be back before you know it.”

She could only watch as he left with the third man. Giving the excuse that she was checking on Adam, she slipped into the bedroom, closing the door. “It’s alright,” she said quietly, moving to his bedside. “You’re gonna be okay. We’re gonna get you some help. Your friends are in the other room.” She tucked his blankets in around him tighter. 

He lifted a finger and began tapping the bedside table to get her attention. She glanced up at him and he pushed the words out with tremendous difficulty. 

_ “Not… friends…” _

“Then who the hell are they?”

_ “They’ll…they’ll kill you too…” _

He glanced over at the glass of water sitting on the bedside table, and she grabbed it quickly, bringing it to his lips.

_ “I ratted…on Luthor…” _

Lena paled. No way. It couldn’t be. “Lex Luthor?!”

He nodded slowly, his breath ragged. 

“What are you doing up here?”

_ “Witness...protection…” _

The story began to present itself to Lena. “Witsec dumped you up here, but they found you?”

He nodded.

She slumped back in her chair. What were the odds that the man who ratted on her brother had found his way right to her? Did Lex know where she was? Did the men know who she was? Her head was spinning.

He grabbed her hand gently. 

_ "Please. They'll kill me." _

Lena removed her pistol from her waistband and placed into his hand, moving the covers on top of him to hide it.

Tucking the blanket back around him, she sighed. "How are we gonna get you out of here?"

The door opened and the sound of ice crunching met her ears as she turned to see Ben leaning against the doorframe. "Everything okay in here?"

She gave a small smile, not wanting to spook him. "Yeah he's good. He'll push through a few more hours." She turned back to Adam and looked him in the eye. "He's a fighter."

***

Ice pelted the windows as they waited for Jack and the third man, who Ben had informed her was named Otis, to return. She stood in the kitchen, Ben’s glass of ice in her hands, as she tried to think of her next move. She stared over at Corben, who was sucking on the spoon he’d been dipping into the peanut butter jar with his feet up on the table. 

Ben’s voice broke through her thoughts. “Gosh, I never thought our little hunting adventure would turn out like this.”

She glanced up from the glass. “Hunting? I thought you said you were fishing.”

He looked at her puzzled. “What?”

He had slipped. The mask had slid off just a little, and they both knew it. She decided not to call anymore attention to it and let the glass fall out of her hand, shattering on the stone floor. “Ah, dammit!”

She stepped through the pile purposefully, her boots crunching the pieces smaller and smaller as she reached for the small broom and dustpan. “Sorry about that.”

“Here, let me help,” Ben offered, moving toward her. 

“No, no! Stay where you are. There’s glass everywhere.” She crunched back over the glass and bent down to sweep it up, setting the dustpan down on the counter, conveniently hidden behind the refrigerator. She heard Ben mutter to Corben to get his feet off the table, and she took the moment of distraction to put her plan into action. Grabbing the empty ice tray out of the freezer, she quickly dumped some of the smaller shards of glass into the slots, filling the space around them with water. 

She closed the freezer door, and silence descended on them for what seemed like an hour.

Finally, Ben walked over and leaned against the fridge, clearing his throat. “Bears."

Lena looked at him in confusion.

"What I wanted to hunt," he clarified, "bears. I had this grand vision of bagging a grizzly. Otis and the others wanted to fish, we were gonna split up the trip. They didn’t get their fish, I didn’t get my bear.”

Lena frowned. “You do know it’s illegal to hunt bears, right?”

He scoffed. “What’s the matter, you never broke a rule or two?”

She smirked at him.  _ Touché. _ Stepping in front of Corben, she took the spoon out of his hand and grabbed the jar of peanut butter off the table. “You done with that?” She asked, not waiting for a reply.

He scoffed, “I guess.”

She moved back over to the counter, hiding her hands from view as she opened the cabinet and pulled out some rat poison, slowly mixing it into the peanut butter as Ben spoke again.  _ Just in case,  _ she thought.

“Why do you still wear your ring?”

Her heart stopped. “Excuse me?” She asked in shock. Why the hell wouldn’t she be wearing it?

“Your wedding ring. Why do you still wear it?”

She glanced down at the diamond, the barest hint of a smile forming on her lips as she thought about the House of El crest that sat etched on the inside of the band, just underneath it.

“My wife gave it to me.” Kara hadn’t quite been her wife, but she might as well have been, and it felt good to say it.

“I thought you said that didn’t work out. What happened?”

She was quiet for a moment as she screwed the lid back on the peanut butter. How dare he ask her about Kara? How dare he insinuate that she shouldn’t remain devoted to the woman she had loved. This was none of his business. She had half a mind to just pull the shotgun out of the gun cabinet and blast them all to hell. But she couldn’t spook them, not until she had gained the upper hand. She took a deep breath, centering herself.

“I lost her.”

Ben nodded in understanding. “So  _ that’s  _ you’re up here all alone. Middle of nowhere, all alone with a bunch of unpacked boxes? Just a lady and her dog and a gun."

Lena stood silently. Everything was silent. She looked around, frowning. “Where is Krypto?”

“Who?”

“Krypto. My dog.”

The door to the cabin opened suddenly and Otis walked in, shaking the snow off of his coat. “Whew. You were right about that weather. I was not dressed warm enough!” 

He moved to stand directly in front of the fire, extending his hands out toward the open flame.

“Where’s Jack?” She asked, feeling her heart rate tick upward. 

“We got about a mile down the trail and bumped into another ranger on a three-wheeler. Only had room for one. They headed back to town, said they’d call for help. Told me to get back here before I froze!” He chuckled and turned back to the fire.

“Have you seen my dog?”

“What? No.”

Lena walked through the house, calling for Krypto. She moved into the bedroom and put her finger to her lips when she made eye contact with Adam. She reached under the blanket and grabbed the pistol from his hand, stashing it in her waistband.

“You sure she’s not in the barn,” Corben called from the living room. “Maybe she got spooked with the storm and all.”

Lena gathered her coat and gloves, wrapping her scarf around her neck and pulling on her hat. “I think I’ll brave the weather. She’s probably outside.”

Walking to the kitchen window, she glanced down at the sink, trying to hold in her fear. Her eyes fell on the garbage disposal and an idea formed in her mind. She subtly raised a hand and flicked the switch to the disposal. The fuse blew and the whole cabin went dark, save for the fire in the hearth.

“What the hell was that?” Otis asked.

“Damn generator,” said Lena, tsking. “Happens all the time.”

“So what do we do?”

“ _ You _ do nothing. I’m gonna go fix it.”

Ben moved over to her, blocking the door. “Tess, it’s bad out there, you’ll need help.”

Lena pulled on her gloves with a scoff. “You know Ben, the one thing that I have learned out here in all my time alone?”

“What’s that?”

She snapped her eyes up to stare firmly into his. “Men just get in my way. I’ll be right back.” Pushing past him, she flung the door open and headed towards the barn, the ice driving pellets of frozen water into her eyes. Throwing open the door to the barn, she made a beeline for the radio. Maybe there was a chance the Russians could understand English. She flicked on the switch.

Nothing happened. 

Grabbing the radio, she pulled it toward her and saw that the cord had been cut. Her heart dropped into her stomach and her breaths started to come faster. They were trying to cut off any means of assistance. She pulled her gun out of her waistband and pulled the slide back to chamber a round. Nothing. She slid the magazine out and found that all of the bullets had been removed. 

She dropped the gun on the table and brought her palms down on the top of it, hard. Ben must have seen her give Adam the gun, or found it after she had given it to him. She felt herself start to hyperventilate and tried to breathe, tried to recall the Kryptonian meditation that Kara had taught her. Soon her breaths were coming slower and her hands didn’t feel like they were paralysed. 

An electronic bleeping brought her back to reality. * _ bleep bleep _ *

She stared around the barn, trying to find the source of the noise.

* _ bleep bleep* _

It seemed to be coming from the corner. She shone her flashlight over and crept slowly forward.

* _ bleep bleep* _

Finally it sounded as if she was right on top of the beeping noise. She stared at the tarp in front of her, haphazardly thrown onto a pile of something. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply before grabbing the tarp and pulling it off the pile. 

She gasped and then all her breath left her as she fell backward into the wall. Bringing a shaking hand up to her mouth, she stared at the sight before her. Jack, his body pale in death, and Krypto laid on top of his chest...both of their throats slit.

Lena fell to her knees, hugging her herself as she rocked back and forth. They had killed Jack, they had killed Krypto. Krypto, who had reminded her of Kara every single day. Who had brought her light and given her a reason to get out of bed every day other than revenge. Krypto had given her something to take care of.

She breathed deeply and felt her fear be replaced by another emotion entirely:  _ rage. _

She grabbed Jack’s walkie off his belt and turned the knob until she found the right frequency. 

“Hey Ben, you there?”

She heard the sound of ice crunching as he came over the line and smiled. 

_ “What’s going on, Tess? Why haven’t the lights come back on?” _

Lena raised the speaker to her mouth and laid all of her cards on the table, her voice shaking with pure, unadulterated hatred. “Because you killed my dog, and you killed my friend Jack.”

There was a moment of silence. She wondered if they were moving toward her position, but then Ben’s voice came back over the speaker, lower and calmer than it had been.

_ “Don’t make this any harder than it has to be, Tess. We haven’t killed you yet.” _

“And I haven’t killed  _ you _ yet!” She spat back into the walkie. “I know that man in my room is not your friend, just like there was no plane crash.”

_ “Car accident, actually.”  _ Lena heard him give a wheezing cough.  _ “Trying to get out of this weather. Trunk popped open, and the damn cargo ran off into the woods.  _ More coughing.  _ “We chased the son of a bitch for hours. I’m not leaving here without him.” _

“Why not just kill him,” she asked softly, “why not kill me?”

_ “We needed you to keep him breathing. Lex wants him back alive so he can tell us what he told the feds. Only then can he die. Slowly. That’s my specialty."  _ She heard the sound of ice clinking in a glass, followed by more crunching, and she grinned.  _ “And now you can too.” _

“That’s a nasty habit you’ve got there, Ben. I noticed.”

_ “Enough! You’re one woman in the middle of an ice storm against the three of us. It doesn’t end well for you, Tess…”  _ His last few words trailed off weakly in a coughing fit.

“What’s that, Ben?” She asked with a laughing tone. “Ben, are you okay?” She chuckled. “That’s a stupid question, of course you’re not okay, because my name’s not Tess. It’s  _ Lena fucking Luthor _ .”

Silence followed her admission.

“You wanted to know about my past? I was an engineer. An inventor. A genius. And I was damn good at reading people. I smelled you out the minute you walked through my door. That’s why I froze broken glass into those ice cubes you love to chew. Now every time you breathe, you’re inhaling those little shards deeper into your throat and lungs.”

A bout of wheezing coughs came over the line, followed by an angry  _ “You’re dead!” _

“No Ben! For the first time in a while, I’m feeling pretty fucking alive! So if you want to come for me, you better come ready for a fight! Because you know what the three of you against me in the woods is going to be?!”

She arched an eyebrow and bared her teeth as she uttered her answer. 

“Practice!!”

She threw the walkie against the wall, smashing it to bits. Knowing she only had a few minutes before they came looking for her, she went to work. Climbing up on the table she pulled the string out of her sweater and tied one end around her lit flashlight, the other end to the beam above her so that it hung in the middle of the room, giving the illusion of someone standing there holding it. Jumping down off the table, she yanked an old bear trap off the wall and tested its efficacy with an old piece of wood. The jaws snapped shut and broke the beam cleanly in two.

Lining the trap under the flashlight, she covered it in hay and debris from the floor, camouflaging it, then she ran out of the back of the barn and around the side of the cabin, just in time to see the three men exit, splitting up and surrounding the barn, shotguns from her own safe in hand. 

She dashed through the back door and into her bedroom, pulling the sled from the living room with her. Yanking back the covers, she lowered Adam onto the wood and then tucked the comforters around him, up to his neck, dragging him out the back door and down the mountain. 

As she passed the old root cellar, an idea sparked in her mind and she slid Adam over behind some trees, before dashing down inside. There were stacks of firewood, but more importantly, three cans of gasoline. She grabbed one and unscrewed the cap, dumping it on its side and letting the contents spill out, careful to keep it off her boots. 

Climbing out of the cellar, she purposefully left the door wide open and waited behind it. Sure enough, not five minutes later she caught a glimpse of Corben making his way toward the structure, one of her shotguns in his hand. She waited until he stepped down inside the cellar before leaping from her hiding place, closing the door and latching it. She heard him bang on the wood and smiled as she flicked her lighter, dropping it down the exhaust pipe and running toward the trees, turning back just long enough to see the whole cellar lit up in flames, an agonising scream audible over the crackling inferno.

She grabbed the ropes on the sled and began her descent down the mountain.

As she passed by, a yelp from the barn made its way to her ears and she grinned inwardly that her trap had got one of them. Not daring to stop, she pressed forward, but it was slow going. She was no Supergirl and Adam was heavy. She could see the light of their flashlight dancing around the woods and knew they would be on her soon. She pushed herself forward, digging into the icy ground with all her might. 

Finally, upon reaching the ranger’s station, she shoved her way through the door and pulled the sled in after her. 

“You’re gonna be okay, Adam. I’m going to get you out of here. I’m going to get you some help.”

Pulling open the cabinet behind Jack’s desk, she found a bigger first aid kit than her own and a flare gun, as well as a portable defibrillator, a hiking backpack, and several bottles of lighter fluid. Grabbing the first aid kit and the flare gun, she loaded a flare into the chamber before throwing both items into the backpack, tossing it onto the desk.

A creaking sound filled the silence, followed back the rattle of the door handle at the back of the station. A gunshot rang out and she looked back to see Otis stumbling into the station. She grabbed a filing cabinet and pushed it over, blocking his path.

“You know, from one professional to another, you’re pretty good,” he said, shuffling over the fallen files. She grabbed a second cabinet and pulled it down too. “Ben said tonight would be easy. Hunker down, wait out the storm. But you’re all out of tricks now. All out of traps.” He leapt over the second cabinet as she backed away toward the desk. “And now I’m gonna kill you... _ slowly. _ ”

Lena grabbed the lighter fluid from the cabinet and squirted half the bottle in his face, the excess soaking his entire body. He screamed in pain as he tried to wipe it out of his eyes. 

Taking advantage of his incapacitation, she slung the backpack over her shoulder and grabbed the sled, pulling him back out into the unforgiving cold. She made it halfway up the mountain before her boot caught a particularly slippery patch of ice and she faceplanted into the mud. 

Gathering herself, she grabbed her pack and unzipped it, reaching in for the flare gun to have it ready. The sound of the ground crunching made her whip her head around. And there was Otis, gun in hand, making his way slowly toward her. 

“It’s over. Nowhere left to run.”

Lena tightened her grip around the pistol. “I'm not running! I told you, I came to fight!”

She raised the bright orange gun just as he raised his own, and pulled the trigger. The flare shot out, illuminating the ice frozen ground around them before igniting the lighter fluid and engulfing Otis in a ball of flames. 

She slumped down to the ground, tossing the gun back into the pack as Otis burned a few feet away. The foul stench made her wrinkle her nose and she pulled her scarf up over her face to block it out as she recovered. 

Two down. All that was left was Ben. Ben, who had been eating glass shards all night and who likely had been the one caught in the bear trap since Corben was burned to a crisp and Otis had seemed to be walking fine. She just had to keep him alive. He knew where to find Lex. He was valuable. With a renewed sense of purpose, she hoisted the sled ropes back over her shoulders and pulled her cargo back up the mountain to the cabin. 

Stopping outside the window, she glanced inside and found Ben sitting in a chair in the living room, facing the front door, gun in hand. She smiled to herself. This would be too easy. 

Grabbing a shovel from the barn, she made her way to the back of the cabin, her boots making no noise on the carpeted stone floor. She crept up behind him and couldn’t resist the temptation. 

“Batter up, Ben.”

He jerked his head around just before she smashed it with the shovel. He slumped in his seat, gun falling to the floor. Pulling open a drawer in the kitchen, she grabbed some cable ties and secured his hands behind his back before pulling Adam back inside.

Morning was quickly approaching and the sleet was no longer falling as hard or fast. Soon her truck would defrost and she could get Adam to a hospital and get Ben back to National City. She took the rest of the night to clean the cabin top to bottom. 

She couldn’t risk anyone knowing it was her here. She could leave no trace evidence, not a tissue in the trash, not a fingerprint in the barn, not a hair in the drain. Nothing. She wiped the entire place clean, even pulling out the piping under the sink and cleaning that too. 

Pulling open the unpacked boxes from the corner of the cabin, she began tossing their contents into the fire. The flames curled and soon obscured the words on the pages, concealing the lists of Lex’s known associates and their current whereabouts. She didn’t need this anymore. She had hit the motherlode with good ol’ Ben.

***

She drifted off to sleep around 4am and was awoken a few hours later to the sound of Ben struggling against his bonds. She smiled, then grabbed a bottle of Ketamine that her doctor had prescribed her (that she’d never touched) and shoved the pill down his throat. He soon fell back into a deep slumber, his breaths wheezing worse than ever. She shook herself awake. She was on a time crunch.

She loaded everything she needed into her truck, and was pleased to find the block no longer frozen. She loaded Adam on the sled and, with some difficulty, pushed him into the bed of the truck, before dragging Ben out and shoving him into the passenger side. She did one last look around the cabin before driving to the nearest hospital, dumping Adam at the door like a Christmas present, and headed to the nearest airfield, chartering a jet back home.

***

Lena stood outside Alex’s apartment, inhaling deeply, gathering her courage, then rapped three times. 

The door opened a minute later, revealing a surprised Alex. She looked no better than the last time Lena had seen her, but no worse either. The dark circles under the agent’s eyes matched her own, and the red rims of her eyes told a story of immeasurable tears shed.

“Lena,” she said, her voice full of surprise.

“Hey,” she replied hesitantly, unsure of their new dynamic.

Alex paused for a moment, taking her in before opening the door wider to allow her entry. She led the way to the kitchen, putting on a kettle for tea, splashing some scotch into her own mug. “You look...strong.”

She smiled softly. “I’m healed.” She tilted her head back and forth. “I mean...as much as can be expected. I actually wanted to thank you.” 

“What for?”

“For honoring your promise. You and Sam. I know it couldn’t have been easy for the two of you.”

Alex smiled softly. “It’s what you wanted. Who were we to judge how you grieve?”

Lena looked down at her hands, fidgeting with her fingers. “I also wanted to apologise.”

Alex furrowed her brow. “Why?”

She raised her eyes back up to hers. “Because I couldn’t keep mine.”

“Oh.”

The kettle whistled and Alex pulled it off, filling her mug, but said nothing more.

“I tried to,” Lena continued, “I really did. I didn’t go looking for trouble but…it found me. And I’m glad it did.”

“What happened?” She raised her mug to her lips, a crinkle forming on her brow. 

“I killed some men.”

Alex stared at her blankly.

“It doesn’t matter that they were bad,” she continued, “doesn’t matter that it was them or me. What matters is I did it, and I was good at it. And I didn’t lose any sleep over it.”

Alex paused, sipping her scotch. “You will. One of these nights, you will. It’s just a matter of when.”

She frowned. “Maybe. Later.” She huffed out a small laugh. “After I’ve crossed the ‘abyss’.” She made air quotes with her fingers. Alex laughed lightly too. “But from the side I’m on, all that matters is that I’m healed, and I’m back.”

She set her mug down and took Alex’s hands in hers. “And I’ve brought you a present.”

“What?”

She nodded. “But you have to come with me to see it. And it’s...kind of time sensitive.”

The agent gave her a puzzled look. “Okay…” she said slowly, “just let me get dressed.”

Lena sipped her tea while Alex changed and they headed out the door together.

***

The elevator dinged, the doors opening to reveal the absolute depths of L-Corp’s sub-level basement. Lena led Alex down a dimly lit hallway to a thick steel door at the end. She entered a code and it swung open, groaning all the way. 

Flicking a switch to her right, the room was soon illuminated by LED lights overhead, revealing solid concrete walls and floors, the room completely bare except for two makeshift cells on opposite ends of the room. Lena walked to the first and pulled the door open, revealing Ben, shackled to the ceiling, his wheezing breaths more and more ragged the longer they stood there.

“This is Ben. He’s part of the trouble who came looking for me. He works for Lex.”

Alex’s eyes widened as she looked back and forth between Lena and Ben. “You mean...he can lead us to him?”

Lena smiled and ushered her out of the cell towards the other. She opened the door to reveal Lex, shackled to the ceiling, battered and bruised, his face covered in blood. A gouge in his shirt told the tale of a large knife wound in his stomach. Poetic justice. 

“He already did.” She turned to face Alex. “Happy Birthday, New Year, and Merry fuckin’ Christmas.”

She turned to leave the cell, placing a hand on Alex’s shoulder. “He’s all yours now. To deal with however you see fit.”

She strode out of the cell smiling a real smile for the first time in months.

She wasn't sure if Kara would be proud of what she had done; Kara had always chosen to be better than those who would do them harm. But she knew that she would be proud of how she had reclaimed her power. She was ready to move forward, to face her life with Kara’s light illuminating the path toward her future. With Kara's memory held tightly in her heart, she knew she could handle anything. 

Because she had been loved, wholly and completely by a god.

Because she had opened her heart and chose to love in return.

Because, even in her darkest moments, Kara had believed in her.

Because she was Lena fucking Luthor.

***

**Author's Note:**

> Whew! Lena is one BAMF but wbk. Drop a comment and a kudos and let me know what you thought. Thanks for reading!


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